Experience from both sides of the table
One of us spent three decades buying companies inside global corporations and private-equity-backed platforms. The other built a company, sold it himself, completed the earn-out inside the buyer's organization, and has advised founders on the sell side ever since.
We met negotiating opposite sides of the same transaction. makanta puts those two perspectives on the same side of the table.
Every seat at the table.
The transactions below span the buyer, the seller and the seller's advisor. Some closed as makanta; others belong to the careers
that built it.
The majority of our work is not displayed.
Processes at this end of the market are mostly private by choice. Sellers do not wish to be named; buyers are not obliged to announce.
ameo, Hamburg
Acquired by Mindgruve
San Diego
2026
Seller’s Advisor
makanta Sell Side Mandate
One of Europe's longest-standing Amazon advertising and analytics agencies, sold to a US buyer building its European commerce platform. makanta ran a global search and found the strategic fit an ocean away: a buyer that needed exactly what this seller had — and paid accordingly, well above the competing offers from financial buyers. The founder stays on to lead the commerce business in Europe. The buyer's announcement names makanta as advisor.
Yodel Mobile, London acquired by NP Digital
San Diego
2025
The Buyer.
Acquisition Led By Carlos.
A founder-built, award-winning UK agency acquired as part of NP Digital's international buy-and-build. Founder-led, cross-border, lower mid-market — the exact company makanta now represents, seen from the chair that wrote the check.
DEG, Kansas City
Acquired by Dentsu Aegis Network, New York
2018
The Buyer.
Acquisition Led By Carlos.
A deal that, in the buyer's own words, made the group one of the largest Salesforce agency partners in the world. What a strategic pays is set by what the target completes in the buyer's platform story.
productive-data, Hamburg
Acquired by q.beyond
Cologne
2022
Seller’s Advisor
makanta Sell Side Mandate
When a former competitor of mayato decided to sell, its founder asked Sven to run the process. Sven prepared the data & analytics firm for sale, found the strategic buyer, and structured an earn-out the seller went on to complete in full — reaching financial independence. The mandate that turned a founder's own exit into a profession.
CODA Global, Cloudix, and ROVE
Acquired by Presidio,
New York
2020–22
The Buyer.
Sequence Led By Carlos.
Three acquisitions moving the platform up the value stack: cloud consulting, cloud-native development, engineering-led integration. When the sequence began, Presidio described itself as an IT solutions provider; by the end, a global digital services and solutions provider. The fastest way to change a platform's multiple is to change what it's made of.
Verizon’s Latin American and Caribbean Operations
Sold to América Móvil and the Telmex/América Móvil Joint Venture,
2006–07
The divesting side.
Sale Managed by Carlos [Verizon tenure]
The other direction from the rows above: a corporate seller unwinding operations across three countries in transactions totaling roughly $3.7 billion. Carve-outs are the hardest sell-side structures there are — and the discipline of the divesting side doesn't shrink when the company does.
Arkphire, Dublin
Acquired by Presidio,
New York
2021
The Buyer.
Acquisition Led By Carlos.
A BC Partners-backed US platform acquiring a Dublin-headquartered IT procurement and services company as its hub for Europe and Asia-Pacific. The premium existed because the buyer needed what only this seller had. For an Irish company, the best buyer was an ocean away.
mayato, Berlin
Positive Thinking Group Brussels
2017
The Seller.
Found-Led Exit.
Sven's own company: co-founded in 2007, built for a decade, sold at the end of 2017 to an international group of more than 2,000 people — a cross-border exit, before cross-border exits became our business. The announcement records the founders staying on in central responsibility, and Sven did: four years inside the buyer, revenue and profitability doubled, the deferred price earned in full.
Between
Transactions
Sven as a Shareholder
in StackFuel.
Sven was a shareholder in StackFuel, Germany’s leading data and AI training provider, and advised both founders through its sale to Multiverse in January 2026; not as process lead, but as the person in their corner who had sat in their seat. And in mandates that never make an announcement, he works with owners years before any sale: as a scaling coach, building the company a buyer will one day pay a premium for.
From the buyer’s chair
Carlos Cesta
30+ years in M&A, from investment banking to corporate development at Verizon, dentsu, Presidio and NP Digital.
125+ completed transactions as principal or advisor.
Several hundred companies evaluated, priced and diligenced from the buyer's perspective.
Transactions across the Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific.
For a seller, the relevance is simple: Carlos has spent decades seeing companies the way buyers see them, how an investment case is built, where risk is identified, what creates strategic value and where negotiating positions move.
From the seller’s chair
Sven Hensen
25+ years in enterprise technology, including founder and operator of mayato.
Built mayato for a decade and ran its sale himself in 2017, without an M&A advisor.
Stayed through the earn-out, growing revenue and profitability and earning the deferred purchase price in full.
Has advised founders exclusively on the sell side ever since.
Sven has made the decisions many clients are making for the first time: when to sell, how to prepare, which buyer is right and how much of the outcome sits in structure rather than headline price.